1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to work gloves and a manufacturing method thereof, in which the outer surface of seamless knitted gloves which are subjected to an antimicrobial and/or deodorizing treatment is provided with a flexible coating such as a vinyl chloride resin coating, a natural rubber coating, or a synthetic rubber coating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are gloves manufactured by sewing knit fabrics together and work gloves covered with a resin film or a rubber film by applying a vinyl chloride resin paste or a natural rubber latex on the outer surface of the gloves with allowance for an improvement in durability. These gloves have been widely used heretofore.
When a coating material such as a vinyl chloride resin paste and a rubber latex is applied to the surface of either the sewn gloves of fabrics made by knitting yarn as mentioned above or the knitted gloves made by directly knitting yarn into the shape of gloves, the coating material becomes easily infiltrated into the fabric or stitches if a viscosity of this coating material is set low. This causes the coating material to penetrate through the knitted gloves into the inner surface thereof, thereby impairing a feeling of the gloves. To prevent this, it is necessary to suppress the infiltration of the coating material by setting the viscosity of the coating material to be used relatively high.
However, when the viscosity of the coating material is set high, a resultant coating film becomes thick, thereby leading to a lack of flexibility which is essential to work gloves. This affects workability when the work gloves are worn by a user.
In respect of the foregoing problem, it is effective to produce the coating film as thin as possible in order to improve the flexibility of the work gloves. However, when the viscosity of the coating material is set low for this reason, the coating material infiltrates deep into the fabric or stitches of the foregoing gloves. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly control the viscosity and applying conditions of the coating material, which prevents an improvement in productivity.
As a means for resolving the above problem, there is adopted a technique which improves the flexibility and feeling of gloves by subjecting sewn or knitted gloves to water or oil repellent treatments so as to suppress the infiltration of a coating material and, hence, the penetration-through of the same. The water or oil repellent treatments are effected by impregnating treatment agents In the gloves after the gloves have been made by sewing or knitting.
Gloves that undergo water or oil repellent treatments in a post process as mentioned above cause manufacturing processes and manufacture managements to be complicated and troublesome. This, in turn, leads to a drop in production efficiency and a rise in cost.
The water or oil repellent treatments may encounter a problem that the excessive water or oil repellency afforded to a glove material hinders a coating material, such as a vinyl chloride resin paste and a rubber latex, from attaching itself evenly to the surface of the glove material, and the resultant uneven application of the coating material leads to a coating with a lack of a predetermined thickness or the formation of pin holes.
By the way, work gloves with the surface thereof coated with a resin or rubber film, as mentioned above, are poor in air permeability because of the presence of a plastic coating or the like on the surface of the glove. This causes the inner surface side of the glove to become stuffy when the glove is used, and also microbes (Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, coliform, or the like) to proliferate because of sweat and dirt on the skin attached to the glove. This causes the glove to give off a bad smell, and occasionally causes skin to be chapped.